“I put too much trust in you,” she replied, completely ignoring him. He might as well have not even been in the room. “This is all my fault.”
“Oh my God. Please, don’t be a martyr. This is clearly Dad’s fault,” he said with a half-hearted smile. He hadn’t drawn in enough air to laugh, so it came out in sputters.
“You’re joking at a time like this? Youarejust like him.”
The blood rushed out of Elias’s head as he sat up too quickly, putting stars in his eyes. “How many times have I asked you not to say stuff like that to me? Can’t you and Dad be normal and ground me?”
“We—” she began.
“No, you can’t,” Elias interrupted, “because who would pick Nia up from school and make dinner when you’re working nights at the hospital?”
Mom released a weary breath. “I don’t have the energy to argue with you, Eli. Please, just get your things ready. You’ll be leaving this week.”
“What are you going to do without me here?”
“We’ll manage. Worry about yourself.”
3
Kai
Three Days Ago
Pop sat on the softest part of the sofa, his eyes fixed on the news. This was his nightly routine. He would get himself feeling as terrible as he could right before dinner so he could have a reason to thank God for the meal he was about to put into his mouth.
Kai went into the kitchen to help his mother.
Mama was standing over a bubbling pot of pureed roasted vegetables, stirring it with her favorite wooden spoon. Kai snuck past her, took a few ladles of the sauce, and poured them over a bowl of rice before Mama dumped the oxtails in. He watched as she stirred the bony cuts of meat. They created a clacking sound against her spoon that made Kai wince.
“Don’t you make that face at my cooking,” Mama said. She would have hit him with the spoon if it wouldn’t put her white counters at risk.
“You know I got love for you, Mama. It’s the meat,” he replied.
“I don’t know how you got so tall eating nothing. You need to learn how to cook if you’re going to be so picky. Or at least find a wife who will do it for you.”
“Or husband.”
Mama tutted. “Then there will be two unsatisfied men in your marriage.”
Kai leaned against the refrigerator. “Animals in distress are full of hormones and chemicals that will go into your body,” he said. “When you eat meat, you’re tasting their last moments.”
“You’re about to tasteyourlast moments if you don’t stop putting fingerprints on my appliances, and why are your toes out in my kitchen?” Mama said, all in one breath.
Kai looked down at his bare feet. “You’re cooking a pot full of bones that come from a cow batty, and you’re worried about my feet?”
“Get your toes out of my kitchen and take your mouth with you.”
Kai laid out plates and silverware on the table. He smoothed down the cracking plastic cover over the polished wood he hadn’t seen since the table was purchased almost a decade ago. The place where Mama usually sat was in the worst shape because her bangles hit the edge when she ate.
Everyone sat down, and Pop made a production out of saying grace. He grew up in Louisiana and always joked that he was born with a Bible in his hand. He thanked and blessed everyone and everything down to the shoes he wore to get him to the table.
Kai was almost too tired to eat by the time theamencame, and every time he chewed, he could feel his new braids tugging at his scalp on the side that was done.
“Stop playing with your hair,” Pop warned.
“You got a little follicle envy, Pop?” Kai said with a low chuckle.
“If hair was so important, it wouldn’t grow in some of the places that it does.” Pop’s voice was stern, but his hand went straight for his shaved head. The water in Pop’s glass rippled as he returned hishand to it, gripping the cup protectively as though someone would steal it away.
